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Age of Evolution
Seventy five thousand years ago, the Earth was in transition. Primates were rising to become a dominant species on the planet and the world was beginning to recover from the previous ice age. But not everything was peaceful. Something very strange happened during this time that would change the world forever. The beings that would become known as the Aeon arrived and transformed the planet from the nickel core it was to something vastly different. During this transformation, the Bifrost's were built. The now hollowed core of the world was linked to the surface via these wondrous bridges. Adjacent links for each bridge coincided with ancient wonders around the world, the wonders used as anchors to connect Surface to the core and prevent the planet from collapsing upon itself. The Aeons then used these bridges to continue their work upon the planet. Experiments were made upon local life forms and new genes were introduced; creatures that might never have existed without their influence evolved and even humanity came from their tests. Dragons and gryphons, kraken and wyrms, creatures great and small spread across the planet. Some species dominated where others floundered and eventually faded, all for what the Aeon had done. Over the millennium, humanity's evolution continued, concealing the Bifrosts with their own creations until civilizations began to emerge all over the world, concentrating religious appeal on the Gates that were built to hide the Bifrosts. The beings who were never seen were worshipped as gods and given all the rites according to their status as Deities. The pyramids of Egypt, Maya, Inca, and Aztec, magnificent monasteries of China, rock-carved cities in the deserts lost by the shifting dunes. all for the sole purpose to conceal those Gates that were not deemed 'magnificent' in their location, such as the Teton Gate or the Fuji Gate. Eventually, the Middle ages came, and the world experienced its next shift. Religious wars began, and people died. Humanity cast darkness upon the races that had previously existed among them (whether as superior forces or lesser), and eventually forced those same supernaturals into hiding lest they be exterminated as some before them. Only a few remained walking among the public, not the least of which included the shape-shifting Therianthrope and Lycanthrope, as well as the night-loving Vampire. Races that could conceal their forms from the humans did best while those who couldn't took to hiding, some even leaving what they had called Midgard to live in the space between the Aeon's realm and what was now the Humans. One by one, the races retreated until their existence became mere stories to frighten children, and eventually legends to inspire but not believe. Humanity could have the surface, for all they cared. Three groups, though, remained, with the withdrawal of the supernaturals. ((Bry: Edit to suit Illum/Temp conflict please!)) The Order of Aeon, Templar, and Illuminati. The Order, created in secret to help protect the Bifrosts when Humanities intelligence first began to show itself in full, at first governed the Templars, giving the holy knights the task of defending the ancient bridges. That would in itself change with time, though, as the Illuminati emerged. A self-governed entity determined to 'free' the world from the chains of religion and return knowledge to the people, they sought the Bifrost avidly to the point of War. Many believed the Crusades to be a matter of Christianity gaining access to holy sites in Jewish controlled locations. The truth of the matter was the Templars sought to wrest back control of the Gates in the Middle East that eventually led to their fractioning and the reformation of the undercover Order to a neutral entity itself. It would try to keep order and maintain the safety and security of the Gates while the Templars and Illuminati fought amongst themselves for control. By the turn of the twentieth century, both factions were more or less secret orders as their council predecessors had always been. They worked undercover, infiltrating each other to cause strife and give to the world what one thought it wasn't ready for. Things zenithed in late 1999 when the Illuminati orchestrated a grand attack upon West Minster Abbey, another of the hidden locations for a lesser Bifrost. The Church had built the renowned Abbey up around it in an effort to hide what humanity was not ready to understand. The infiltration of the Illuminati into the protectorates of the Abbey resulted in chaos. (See Gates of Aeon) The destruction of the Abbey and ruin of half of old London by the use of an unusual serum, called Compound V. Later studies of the agent determined it was not composed of common earth elements and was given to the Order for governing as its level of toxicity was too high to risk another War of Prisms. The Compound corrupted the area, mutilating those around the Gate and transforming fauna, flora, and mineral into mutated forms. The air became unable to support life, and what was more, people in the unaffected parts of London began to see 'strange creatures'. Whatever the Illuminati had done had unraveled the illusions of the supernaturals surviving among them. Non-shifters suddenly found themselves exposed in the middle of a subway, while other citizens claimed seeing frightening and terrible creatures feasting upon the homeless in the alley's. Shifters were unexpectedly forced into their alternate forms while the magic that kept others undetectable was completely erased. London and all of the UK became pure chaos. The breach in security did not end there, however. With the first wave of attack over, the second and final part of their assault began on New years of the same year while the world waited in tense anticipation for the change of the millennium. Assaults began across the globe, timed to the first location on earth to witness the change of the year. Massive explosions, radioactive detonations, more releases of Compound V, raids and riots a plenty, all aimed at seeming random. Whole parts of the world became utterly uninhabitable when the dust settled years later, others completely destroyed. As with the West Minster attack, supernaturals long in hiding were suddenly exposed and 'monsters' began to walk the earth with humans once more. World Governments collapsed under the weight of human terror and the Illuminati-wrought chaos until martial law ruled in many major cities not destroyed by the second round of attacks and the war which followed in pursuit of the organization behind them. Where martial law was not in place, anarchy was. Many went underground to escape the chaos, and found themselves brought into either safety or death by the ones who had long ago hidden. It would be more than twenty years before the dust finally began to settle and humanity and the newly 'emerged' supernaturals were able to try rebuilding. Anarchy subsided as the Order of Aeon emerged to unite the world again, bringing hope to the people with funding for rebuilding in newly ordained 'safe zones'. These safe zones were built around Nexus within the Bifrost network, Gateways that had for centuries been slowly leaking technology into the world and subsequently carefully restricted. Local authorities declared them either as too dangerous or inhospitable, or protected zones where humanity was forbidden access. The Order had protected these, though, until the time was right; with the global reform of civilization, there was no better time to put them to use. However, as throughout history, these Nexus, like the Gates, remained protected, security fierce and nigh unbreachable. What came from the Bifrost was shared only at the whims of the Order, which remained a neutral governing order that as much kept the Illuminati and Templars from destroying the world a second time as it did passing judgement and law upon the rest of the world. The populace did not know the full scope of the Bifrosts other than that they were somehow linked to one another. They did not know about the beings within that shared what they chose with the surface dwellers, the Midgardians as the supernaturals called them. They knew only that much of what helped them recover from the disasters of 1999 came through those Gates and few who went through them in return were seen again. By 2057, Blue Zone cities were fully established across the world and civilization began again. Agriculture started over outside the cities and trade was governed by the Order. The supernaturals were provided with special tokens, a unique tech that came from the Bifrosts to assist these survivors of an ancient time in conforming to the new world order. Those without the ability to conceal their forms were provided with these Shadow Amulets ((Need a better name for these...)). Crime still existed, of course, and every city did eventually find themselves with their own ne'erdowells to deal with, but for the most part cities existed harmoniously. A borderline Utopia. Those entities, including humans, who did not wish to live within the Blue Zone cities could try to eek out a living beyond the borders, but the Order had long since determined these non-Red Zones unsafe for habitation. In the end, survival became a matter of individuality while the hidden war continued. Who will win? Who will lose? Only the gods know, and they have not been heard from in millennium...